A FACEBOOK posting linking to an article that portrayed a disabled Palestinian child as a victim of the
recent strife in Gaza has been removed.

The posting, by lobby group Australians for Palestine, appeared with a confronting photograph of a young boy missing his lower arms and legs.

Rather than depicting a child victim of war, the photograph was taken from an Associated Press article on a Palestinian boy receiving care in an Israeli hospital after having his limbs amputated as a result of a rare genetic
disorder.

Australians for Palestine did not respond to a request for comment from The Australian. Andre Oboler, head of the Melbourne-based Online Hate Prevention Institute, warned web content could
exacerbate tensions in the community.

“The online world was once the wild west,” Dr Oboler said.

“There was a view that online crimes were not real crimes as one could easily walk away or unplug, and no real harm would be done. There was also a view that online content would only be seen by those that were looking
for it. Both these ideas are obsolete.” Dr Oboler described online hate as “the pollution of the social media industry”, saying some social media companies were evading the issue.”We are still living in an age before
pollution became regulated and those causing the problem were expected to contribute to the cost they imposed on society,” he said.